Trionym
by Sydney Z. Hampshire
Summary: Semi-AU; takes place many many many many years before the game. It's an old cliqué of a nobleman and... a not so nobleman's friendship. Mild Valenwind


**AN:** Sort of but not really AU. Takes place many many many many many many years before FFVII.  
Pairing: Mild sorta Valenwind (VincentxCid)

**Trionym**  
The afternoon was muggy, and the drizzle the oily rain of summer fevers. Cid Highwind, and his friends, the twins Randy and Robert –but everyone called him Bob- weren't at the school their parents thought they were at, rather they were at the creek, throwing pebbles at the fish. There was another reason they shouldn't be there, aside from skipping school: this was land belonging to the family Valentine; they were the richest family for many miles, and owned many of those miles, they also bred some of the rarest and most beautiful Chocobo's known, left unnamed by the chilly family, they were called by most Heart Chocobo, fast, elegant and strong, and one was currently being driven after the three boys, caught playing by the water…

"Hoi! Hoi guys! Wait up!" Cid gasped plunged into the water and waded across after the twins, limber and taller than he, they glanced over their shoulders, then vanished into the woodlands that side of the river, Cid scrambled up the bank, went to bolt into the trees, but was cut of by a piercing "EEeee!" and the most stunning bird Cid had ever seen leapt the river and was swung around before him. It stood tall on strong legs, its neck was slender and long, it's beak tapered elegantly and hawk-like, golden eyes burned down at him, and it's long eyebrow tufts flittered in the wind. It crooned smugly, shifting its slender wings and flicking it's three pronged tail, two curled like a rooster, one like a pheasant, it's feathers were, as with all Hearts, pure inky black, tipped and rippled with a bloody crimson. As Cid's eyes climbed the quietly elaborate saddle, he realised it's rider matched the bird beautifully, tall and slender, garbed in a red coat, embroidered with black, and black riding jodhpurs, the young man's shoulder length black hair was tied back with red taffeta, and his expression was the classic aloof chill of all Valentines, his peculiar eyes and a Heart's feather tucked into the ribbon was enough to tell the cornered trespasser that the boy, who wasn't much older than him, still had a rebellious streak powerful enough to rise against the careful tutoring of his family.

"What are you doing here?" the boy demanded, "This is private property!" Cid floundered, and the other laughed, "The same as me I presume!"  
"Wha'?"  
"…As eloquent as I expected," he tugged minutely on the reigns and turned the bird away, "You do go to school right?"  
"Yeah! I just ain't there now!"  
"Precisely, I too am meant to be in the direction of my tutors, I just decided, today, I shall go out riding," he glanced down at Cid, who'd run after him, still gawping at the Chocobo, "So I shall not tell father you were here, if you don't mention where I was."  
"What, ya not meant to be 'ere?"  
"No, it's meant to be dangerous. Too close to town," his eyes sparkled as he leant down to be closer to Cid's height, he gasped, "Oh my! You're not dangerous are you?"  
"Dangerous as they get!" but he couldn't keep a straight face, "Well, okay, not really, not yet, but I will be! One day I'm going to be a great fighter!"  
"Oh really? Well when that day comes, we must spar together. What is your name?"  
"Cid!" Cid stuck out his hand, because shaking hands was polite, the noble smiled and took it in his black leathered hand,  
"Vincent Valentine," he said, "I'm glad to meet you, Cid."  
"Ya are?" his blue eyes narrowed, "Why?"  
"You're a breath of fresh air, in an otherwise uninspiring world."  
"Are ya an artist?""  
"What? Oh! Well, I can draw, but I'd never have the gall to call my self an artist."  
"I'm not an artist either," Cid shrugged, "So I wouldn't feel bad about it!"  
Vincent shook his head, "I don't. Cid, do you often come here?"  
"…Not really…"  
"Could you?"  
"I could… But why?"  
"I'd like to get to know you better--"  
"Really!?"  
"Yes, really, I've never really had anyone to talk to besides by tutors and family, maybe we could be friends?"

"Cid?" concern showed on the other's face, "Are you alright?"  
"Friends… Well… I…" he looked down at his boots, and was embarrassed, because they were rough and old and too big for him, and Vincent's were black, polished, and so obviously made to fit, even though he was still growing, "Okay then, um…"  
"I'll meet you here then!" Vincent kicked the bird back towards the house, out of sight in the distance, "Tomorrow, good bye until then, Cid!"  
"…Goodbye!"

***

"Cid! Did you get in awful trouble?"  
"Yeah did you!?"  
"No! No thanks to you bastards!"  
"So what happened?"  
"…Nothing, nothing happened. The guy told me it was private, and I left!"  
"Is that all!?"  
"He didn't take his whip to you!?"  
"No he damn well didn't!"

"…"

"So… Missing school tomorra'?"  
"No, I've things to do tomorrow, so I'm going to go to school first!" Cid took to his heels, and the twins looked at each other, "Did he just say--"  
"—'tomorrow'?"  
"When does he ever say that that way all proper posh?"

***

Cid tossed a pebble into the water, it blooped and the fish scattered, he'd been here for eternity –an hour- and no sign of Vincent, he groaned and slumped backwards onto the moss, staring up at the dimming sky above him through the trees, "Vincent… Where are ya?"

He knew where Vincent was.  
This was the third year past since they'd first met after all, and very little ever changed, it was a perfect and timeless constant, that would soon end. Cid had almost left the first time when Vincent was late, but the older boy had explained that his tutorage must continue longer than Cid's meagre schooling, and he would take some time to ride here. Cid always pretended to be angry at him, to be just about to leave when Vincent showed up, but it was just a game.  
They'd hit it of, become friends, straight out, it had just worked: two hours of painful awkwardness, Vincent had been trying to make polite conversation, Cid hadn't understood. Then without much warning, he'd scooped up a rock, gone to throw it, and pitched himself straight into the water. Vincent had burst into laughter, Cid had yelled at him, and they'd fought on the grasses and moss, until Cid sat back in hysterics, pointing at Vincent who's hair was terribly mussed up, and Vincent had laughed at him because he was soaking wet (now they both were of course) and covered in green moss. They'd talked easier then, brought down to a common wet mossy level, and had thrown insults and childish conversation back and forth like two boys barely in their teens should. Vincent had left, Cid had wandered home and been chastised severely by his mother, who just told him to be glad his father wasn't there. Vincent's father was there however, and that next afternoon he'd been morose in greeting Cid, and when questioned, he just tore off his gloves, tears prickling his eyes and he revealed the ugly red welts on his hands, "I told him, Cid! He asked what happened, and what could I do but tell him!?"  
"Lie?"

Today, Vincent was even more late than usual, and Cid was seriously considering leaving, they'd invariably been painfully careful not to get dirty after Vincent had been caned for being here with him, but sometimes they let their guard down, or just took a risk, sometimes Vincent would show up, his slender hands raw, other times, Cid would be caught by his father, made angry by the careless attitude his son had towards the clothes they worked to get him, and the next day he'd limp to the river, barely able to sit from the belt shaped welts still hot and fresh on his rump. Maybe Vincent's family had finally had enough and he'd been locked in his room, it'd happened before, or what if they'd decided to put an end to their friendship once and for all!? The boy twitched. What if there was an angry nobleman with a whip coming for him right now!? He gasped, and then screamed, when the pale smiling face of Vincent appeared directly above him, "VINCE!" he went to sit up, but was pushed back down, Vincent sprawled out beside him, "Ya scared me!"  
"I'm sorry, Cid, but you're so much fun to creep up on," Cid looked over at him; there was something off in Vincent's voice. The boy had his deep red eyes closed, "Vin?" he jumped, Vincent had snapped open his eyes and grabbed his hand, holding it tightly, "Cid! May I ask you something, and receive a frank answer?"  
"I… Always Vincent,"  
"If something should happen, and we should be apart for a time, would you still be my friend when I returned? Even if I was no longer a nobleman's son, but rather the nobleman himself?"  
"…" Cid gaped at him,  
"Cid?"  
"Yes! Yes of course! Why should it change anything!? But why? Why are ya askin'?"  
"Mother is ill! We're going away to dryer climes. Father says it shall be better for all of us, but you're what is best for me, though I can not tell him that!"  
"Vince…"  
"Cid," he rolled over, hair falling loose around his face as he propped himself up to lean over the younger boy, "We shall meet again, some day, this I promise, for otherwise these years would go to waste, and where is the sense in that?"  
"Vin…" Cid sat up, Vincent leaning back on his haunches, "…When we next see each other again… So much will have changed," he looked up sadly, "Ya know everything there is to know about me Vincent, and I you… I can't imagine it being different…"  
Vincent panicked, fearing Cid would break them apart for definite, "But that'll be a good thing! We talked for hours long about ourselves, learning about one another, that was the basis for our friendship, Cid when we meet again, yes, things shall be different, but think of all the new stories we can share! This shall always be our tie!"  
"Yeah, yeah ya right!" Cid swallowed, "But… damn it, I don't want ya to leave!"  
"And I don't want to leave you! That is why I must ask you a second question," he looked up and gazed resolutely past Cid, who followed his gaze, the Chocobo he saw was not Breaker, the bird Vincent had always been riding when they'd met before, this was a younger bird, smaller, with a bleeding heart of red feathers, "He is mine," Vincent said, "And I want you to name him, when we meet again I shall be riding upon this bird, or if his no longer able to be ridden, I shall ride upon his descendent of the same name. Please, let me take this of you with me, let me take the name you give?"  
Cid hung his head, "I ain't good with names, but… I'll try," he shuffled away and Vincent watched nervously as Cid scrawled with his finger in the bank silt… Thinking… Writing… He didn't know. He just waited.

Cid turned suddenly, grinning, but sadly, as he kicked away the writing and ran back to Vincent's side, crouching beside him, "Vin! I got one!"  
"Yes?"  
"Cincfor! …Is that okay?"  
"Cincfor… Yes, I like that, but anything would have been okay from you. May I ask what it means?"  
"Yup! But I ain't gonna tell ya until we next meet!" his smile faded, he looked down and Vincent bit his lip when his friend's shoulders quaked, "Cid…?"  
"Vincent…" he sobbed, "I don't want you to leave! Please… Please…" he flung himself forwards, wrapping his arms around Vincent's neck and leaning in against his chest, "Don't leave me, I don't got no one else now, please…"  
"I'm so sorry, Cid," he wrapped his arms around the other's shoulders, "I wouldn't leave you, not if I didn't have to, but I can't stay, how can I?"  
"Can't ya just stay at this house!?" he sounded practically in hysterics,  
"I could, yes--"  
"Then do so!"  
"Cid, do you care for your family?"  
"Yeah!" he looked up, "'Corse I do!"  
"Even when your father hits you?"  
"Yeah, I know he only wants to teach me right. What's ya point Vince?"  
"I love my family, Cid. Even when mother is too ill to be with us, even when my aunt tries to match me with her friends' daughters, even when grandfather tells the same stories again and again, even when father hits me… I love them, and I can't leave them."  
"…What about me?"  
"I shall always love you, you are my dearest friend, you are my brother of another name, I am not one without you, and I shall return…"  
Cid choked on his sobs, "Vincent… I don't want not to be 'ole again…"  
Vincent buried his head into Cid's blonde hair and pulled him to his feet, "When I do return," he said, "We shall embrace again and cry again, but all shall be well, and again we may be whole."  
"Ya promise!"  
"I promise, upon my life's blood," he pushed Cid away, drawing the hunting knife he carried on his thigh, Cid looked at it, hovering over Vincent's palm, and up to the young man's face, he nodded, and Vincent didn't drop his eyes or flinch once as the blade cut into his hand, Cid, mouth dry, as he took the blade, fought against instinct and cursed himself silently when he closed his eyes against the pain, he bit his lip and, shaking, dropped the knife, Vincent grabbed his hand, they gripped each other tightly, gaze locking, as the cuts ached, "I shall be here, when ya return," Cid said,  
"And I shall return here, and find you," Vincent promised.  
They dropped their hands, and, tears in their eyes and pain in their hearts, went their separate ways.

Cid was sprinting, crying, across the fields towards home when the shriek echoed across the valley, inhuman, pained. Vincent threw back his head and howled, a scream brimming with hatred and love and despair and blood and a friendship to transcend ages, for this sky had yet to be blemished by fire and stone; blemished by a star of hell, it had yet to be graced with steel and spinning blades; graced by a mechanical creature currently without name. He screamed and it echoed across the valley, to Cid who buried his face in his hands, blood smearing across his skin, and cried bitterly for pain and nightmares, bonds and joviality lived and not yet lived. Cincfor tossed it's head and 'crreeeeed' in fear, before it was kicked sharply and the black and red Heart, running fast abreast the wind, made for what it knew to be home…

***

_19 Years Later_  
The yellow Chocobo and trap rattled and jarred down the road, in it rode an older lady and a young woman; it was driven by a smartly dressed man with a blank face. Beside it rode another man, he was talking politely to the young woman, but his speech, and smile, was contrived. She was possibly the most polite, pretty and intelligent of all the young ladies his aunt had ever brought to him, but he was far too distracted to put much care into entertaining her. They were in lands now almost foreign to him, though somehow full of comforting shadows and winds whispering of home, just a few miles from here would be the town, they would pass through on their way to the house, and he hoped to see an old acquaintance there.

They reached the top of the hills, looked down to the village straddling the river, and up the valley, in the woodlands, the house, from up here you could barely see the people, they were little more than ants, but still you could be seen, and the group was indeed seen.  
Less than half way down the hill and Vincent let out a cry, startling the poor women as he fought back the urge to gallop away down the hill, but knowing it could be the death of the chocobo he rode, rather he stayed with the trap, until the figure struggling up the slope grew close enough to be confidently identified. Leaving the women tut-tutting Vincent leapt from his steed and ran down the slope, tripping and stumbling as he almost-but-didn't-fall, he was laughing, waving and so was the other, "Cid! Cid! You're here!"  
"I said I would be! I said!" he sobbed, blue eyes gleaming in the sun, as he reached out, Vincent didn't care for their audience, happily throwing himself into Cid's arms and throwing his own arms around Cid, they tripped and fell against the grass, laughing and finally feeling, after so long, whole once again.

"Well I never!" said Vincent's aunt.

Trionym: -- a name consisting of three words  
Incidently, Cincfor is also a military acronym, which I only remembered after coming up with it XD


End file.
